The present invention relates to a disposable wearing article suitable for use in various forms such as a disposable diaper, a disposable diaper for incontinent patient, a disposable diaper cover and disposable training pants.
Disposable diapers having front and rear waist regions adapted to be detachably connected with each other by sheet-like fasteners are well known. In one example of such a well known disposable diaper, each of the fasteners has its one end as viewed in a transverse direction of the diaper is permanently bonded to one of front and rear waist regions in the vicinity of the associated one of transversely opposite side edges. The disposable diaper 100 of this type shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent No. 3096152 (REFERENCE). The diaper 100 has a pair of connector sheet strips as fasteners. Transversely opposite side edges 103, 103 of the front waist region 101 and transversely opposite side edges 104, 104 of the rear waist region 102 are put flat together, then proximal ends 107, 107 of the respective connector sheet strips 106, 106 having distal ends provided on inner surfaces with engagement members 105 are put flat together with the transversely opposite side edges 103, 103 of the front waist region 101. These portions put flat together are bonded together to define joint zones 108. Immediately inside these joint zones 108, the front waist region 101 is formed with cutting lines 109a, 109a along which the front waist region 101 is cut off from the rear waist region 102. In other words, this diaper 100 initially has the pants-type and may be put on the wearer's body without any modification when it is desired to put the diaper 100 on the wearer standing up. In this case, the connector sheet strips 106 are not used and locked on the front waist region 101 by means of the engagement members 105 without an anxiety that these connector sheet strips 106 might unintentionally move during use of the diaper 100. When it is desired to put the diaper 100 on the wearer lying down, the front waist region 101 or the connector sheet strips 106 may be pulled so as to tear the front waist region 101 off from the rear waist region 102 along the cutting lines 109a and thereby to convert the diaper 101 from the initial pants-type to the open-type as shown in FIG. 6. After putting the diaper on the wearer, the connector sheet strips 106 may be anchored on the front waist region 101 at appropriate positions.
In the case of the diaper 100 disclosed in REFERENCE, the transversely opposite side edges 103, 103 of the front waist region 101, the transversely opposite side edges 104, 104 of the rear waist region 102 and the proximal ends 107, 107 of the respective connector sheet strips 106 are put flat and bonded together wherein the distal ends of the respective connector sheet strips 106, 106 including the engagement members 105, 105 attached thereto extend toward middle of the front waist region 101 as shown in FIG. 5. To put such diaper 100 on the wearer as the diaper of open-type, the connector sheet strips 106 must be turned around from the position in FIG. 5 to the position in FIG. 6 so that the distal ends including the engagement members 105 may extend outward with respect to the rear waist region 102. However, the manner in which the connector sheet strips 106 are bonded as shown in FIG. 5 may cause the connector sheet strips 106 to return to the initial positions after these strips 106 have been turned around. Consequently it may be impossible to maintain these strips 106 extending outward from the front waist region 101 as shown in FIG. 6. Such behavior of the connector sheet strips 106 is troublesome for the mother trying to put the diaper on her baby's body because the mother must, at least temporarily, hold the connector sheet strips 106 so as to extend outward.